


Top Prospects

by Broadripple



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 2017 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, First Meetings, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-25 20:36:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13842561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broadripple/pseuds/Broadripple
Summary: Nico had heard a lot about Nolan Patrick, but this was his first chance to actually hear from him.





	Top Prospects

**Author's Note:**

  * For [emperorpenguin (dortmundbvbbabe)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dortmundbvbbabe/gifts).



> For Emperorpenguin - I guessed that you would be OK with something about Nico and Nolan since you requested both of them. I tried to include your likes and I hope you like this. It's about their first meeting and the very start of them getting to know each other so I did keep it gen in nature. 
> 
> The 2017 CHL/NHL game began with a silence in remembrance of the victims of the mosque shooting the previous day and this fic references that event.
> 
> Thanks to Sleeperservice for the beta. I did make changes after this and so any mistakes are due to me.

The weight of the silence after the noise of the arena was like an ice bath and Nico felt the hair on the back of his neck prickling. It felt wrong to be on the ice watched by so many people standing in silence, usually it would be so loud.

He’d never experienced anything like last night, the contagious fear, as they were hustled into the elevators and told to stay in their rooms.  It was another first experience for him in Canada, watching a tragedy unfold on TV, but being close enough to it that he could faintly hear the sirens and helicopters. Nico knew that things like this happened, even at home, but he’d never felt  the impact of events so personally.

He glanced over, through his eyelashes, at Nolan on the opposite blue line. Nolan’s face was perfectly posed in an expression which was serious, but oddly blank. There was no indication what Nolan was thinking but nothing anyone could criticize. Nico wondered if they had coaches to teach how to react to tragedy to Canadian top prospects - like they seemed to have for every aspect of hockey.  Or maybe Nolan had been practising in the mirror, this morning, as carefully as he must have practised his expression for the photoshoot on Saturday.

That was probably unkind.

He didn’t actually know Nolan; perhaps he felt as bad as Nico did. Although they’d had a meeting with the league president, this morning, he hadn’t felt like he could say he didn’t want to play. Not after they’d talked about how much the game going ahead would mean to the city; the province; Canada. Maybe it was true, it wasn’t his city or his country, he didn’t always understand what mattered to people here.   

The photoshoot was the first time he’d ever seen Nolan in the flesh.  It was a strange first meeting given how much he had heard and been asked about Nolan.  But they hadn’t exactly got a chance to get to know each other as they posed for pictures at center ice, jerseys pulled on over their street clothes and sticks in hand. Nico hadn’t even been holding one of his own sticks it’d just been handed to him with the jersey. They barely got a chance to speak to each other, Nico had been concentrating too hard on not falling on the ice in shoes instead of skates. It had all been about getting the images that would illustrate another moment in the story that other people were telling about them. Today’s instalment - rival captains in a head to head game.

It all felt stupid and petty now. A meaningless game and a fake rivalry.

The PA spluttered into life again and the moment ended, just the anthem and it would be time to play. At least he understood what to do then.

After the game the organizers weren’t as worried about keeping them separated into Team Orr and Team Cherry and as they all mingled and talked he eventually drifted close to Nolan.  He looked a lot more relaxed now they were being blinded by flashes from a group of photographs and there weren’t any mikes to pick up every word.

Nico was tired of only hearing about Nolan, he wanted to hear from him instead, so he stepped into Nolan’s line of sight.

“Hi, good game, you played really well.” It might not have been the smoothest way to start a conversation but it was all the words he had.

Nolan looked at him curiously. “You played better.”

It could be a genuine compliment, or something else. He couldn’t get a read on Nolan when he kept his face so carefully blank.

“You won. Isn’t that what matters?”

Nolan shrugged. “The team I was playing with won - it’s not quite the same thing.”

Nico shook his head. He wasn’t quite sure if he understood that right. “I want to talk to you, but maybe not here?”

Nolan looked around the room, full of young hockey players and old men, and nodded. “Sure, why not.”

They didn’t talk as the made their way to the elevator. Nolan hit the button and lead Nico to his room. He waved Nico through the door in front of him, followed him in and sat on the bed.

Nico took the chair over by the desk.

“You want a beer?” Nolan asked, while Nico was still gathering his thoughts. “You should enjoy the benefits of being in Quebec, I wonder if it’d raise or lower our stock if we drank it downstairs. They'd probably manage to sneer at both Quebec and Manitoba in one sentence.”

Nico took the cold bottle of beer Nolan handed to him and took a sip, it was not the best beer he’d ever tasted. “I guess we should enjoy it while we can, we might both end up on American teams.”

Nolan wrinkled his mouth and looked at him. “ So? You said you wanted to talk.”

Nico hated how hard English was, he knew he missed what he wanted to say often. People either looked at him in confusion, or laughed at him.

“I need you to know, this was not my plan. I think I come and learn how to play here, to help me. I want to play in the NHL, but I didn’t expect any of this. I didn’t think it would turn into such a big fuss.”

Nolan laughed and flopped back on the bed. “So you didn’t come to try to ruin my life.”

Nico flushed, Nolan looked a lot better with real emotions on his face. “No, I just want to play. Timo tells me Halifax is good place, so I decided to try it. I wasn’t thinking about you at all, only me.”

Nolan smiled at him, it was the first time Nico believed Nolan was smiling because he wanted to, rather than he was expected to look happy.

“You really worried I think that? That’s cute. I’ve seen this happen every year, for as long as I can remember, it’s always the way it goes. Always a competition about who will go first. If it wasn’t you it would have been one of these other guys. It’s no big deal. None of it means shit. ”

Nico sighed. “I don’t like it. It’s wrong, they say you go first, now they ask me about it all the time. Maybe I should have stayed home.”

“Like I said, it’s the same story every year.   Reporters, they need a story, gotta get their clicks somehow. You know if you didn’t come I would still have got hurt, and they would be hyping up some other guy as a rival for me. It’s not your fault.”

Nico wasn’t sure if it was the beer or anger but Nolan’s cheeks were flushed.  

“I don’t want someone else deciding for me.”

Nolan laughed again. “Welcome to Canada. You know what?  I never asked for it either, I just loved to play. Maybe I should have done what Matthews did. It could have been like an exchange; you here and me there. I would have had to answer a lot less questions, for sure.”

Nico waved the hand with his beer in it. “I don’t care, who drafts me, or about what place I go in. I just want to play hockey.”

Nolan grinned at him. “Me neither, seems like going first just means you can never be good enough to satisfy people, and they just compare you to the other guys for your whole career, churn out another article everytime you play against each other. Complain that you aren’t what they wanted if you don’t make the play they expect.”

Nico nodded. “Then we should not make the play they expect. Fuck being playing against each other, we should be team. Us, against them. They can write whatever, they can’t make us feel the things they want.”

Nolan leaned forward. “Sure. Let's be friends. They’ll hate it. We are the only people who know exactly how this is for us. We are going to be together for the combine and the draft. No one else is going to get it as well as you do.”

Nico leaned in an clinked his nearly empty bottle against Nolan’s. “To being friends.” 

**Author's Note:**

> The legal age to buy alcohol is 18 in Quebec and Manitoba, but 19 in Nova Scotia. It's 16 in Switzerland.


End file.
